Thank you Netgalley for giving me this opportunity on reading the ARC of the book.
I am a big fantasy lover, and while I enjoy slow world building and a heartburn romantic trope, I felt that this book was lacking on certain things. The story started of great and I loved the equation of mother daughter bond. I could visualise them running and hiding. But after that, when the shadow kin and Knox were introduced, I was not very clear on visualising the story. I stopped relating to the character, and the time jumps were not making sense. I lost the grip in the story when the brother came into picture, and it was a very slow read after that. I wish the world building was more extensive. Although, it was a great read and will be very good for romantasy book starters.
Thank you again for giving me this opportunity.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the early access of this book!

I will start out by saying that this Romantasy was fairly easy to read. I enjoyed it and would 100% recommend this to someone who is just starting their fantasy journey. It’s not overwhelming.

As an avid fantasy reader though - I do find some elements weren’t complete. The world building and the magic system weren’t explored as much as I would’ve liked.

It’s a really short book - about 260 pages, so it reads like a breeze.

The romance was a love at first sight and it didn’t fully develop? I felt like the romance was lacking in the romance department.

But overall, I enjoyed this quick read and recommend it!

Romance, fantasy, action, magic and an interesting worldbuilding...
Esay and well written, even if it was a little confusing.

I loved this book. I really really did. The world building is fantastic and the characters captured me right form their first appearance. An epic battle of good against evil, lies and fractured loyalties.. and two compelling love stories. I am counting the days until the next book in the series. Highly recommended.

"Magic had a way of making its own will known, dark or light."
The village talks of the healer and her bastard child who have lived in a tower in the dark forest for 20 years. Elodie and Wren; who serve as a healer and apprentice. Little more is known but Elodie is a gifted witch and Wren is tempted by the shadows. Elodie does all she can to keep Wren from temptation until a tall, dark stranger comes to the village...

This book has a little of it all; war, world politics, witches and hunters, knights, magic, romance, hidden identity, and a sprinkling of spice, all wrapped up within a gothic fantasy romance.

A Touch of Shadows is written using a split-person narrative, allowing the reader to experience the story from the different viewpoints of each character. This works well towards the story's conclusion, especially during the spicier bits and the final showdown.

I enjoyed the pace and found the prose easy and enjoyable to read. Thorne creates rich imagery without making the sentences difficult to digest. The plot is a familiar story of witches living in the woods but the politics, magic system and revelations within the story keep it fresh.
The biggest issue I had within this story was Wren's naivety and general lack of interest in her origins; she's not even bothered to ask if Elodie is her mother. Regardless, I look forward to more books in the series and would love a prequel.

I really enjoyed this book. It features witches, shadow beings, love at first sight and forbidden powers which could cause a catastrophe if unleashed. I was entertained throughout and found the world building to be really descriptive. Also any author that provides a glossary and pronunciation guide at the front of the book has a place in my heart. The spice level is low but the adventure is plentiful. I personally enjoy more of a build up with romance rather than love at first sight but this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book too much

I enjoyed this book but it also kind of felt like something that I had read before. If you are just entering your Romantasy Era definitely try picking this one up. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. 2.75 rounded up.

I was given the opportunity to read through NetGalley. This is the first title I have read through this author and I was enamored from the start. Secret identity, a strong sassy FMC a golden retriever MMC. A second tragic love story. This had everything romantasy readers like me will love. Banter, tension, magic, war. While the reveals seem transparent there is alway an extra layer of twist that makes them feel so exciting and knocks the reader off balance. It ends in a cliff hanger and I fully intend to buy a physical copy for my shelf. I was fully invested in this the entire book.

Liked ✅
- World building
- Multiple POV's
- Finn & Wren

Thoughts 💭
Similar to any well thought out romantasy novel/series the world building and magic mechanics are a huge part of setting up this book.

A Touch of Shadows is written in multiple POV’s giving readers the opportunity to experience the past from different perspectives, and to get a better understanding of what makes each of them tick. I loved the complexity of the characters, each of them had something different to give to the overall story.

I am excited to dive deeper into Finn and Wren’s love story, as well as Roland and Elodie. I am left with so many questions and can't wait to have a bigger picture as the story progresses further into the series.

I want to start by saying that I enjoyed this book.

It was pretty good, but it wasn't groundbreaking. It was a comfortable romantasy read with likeable characters, but it seemed to me that it suffered from a fairly startling "love at first sight" problem that never saw any further relationship development. Make no mistake, I was rooting for the couple in the story, but I wish there would have been more time spent on developing a more organic attraction between them rather than them just experiencing this supernatural pull to each other from the moment they meet. It led them to make MANY poor decisions based on desperation that I had a hard time rationalizing even taking this desperate attraction and Wren's lack of worldliness into account.

I also felt that our main villain was a caricature-like rather than fleshed out in any meaningful capacity. He was given some motivation, but a lot of it boiled down to him being sadistic and evil for the sake of being sadistic and evil.

Overall, while I know a lot of what I've written here is more negative, I loved the ideas here and think this could be a truly amazing story if more time was taken to flesh out characters and their motivations. It had the makings of an engaging plot, but didn't take enough time to fully realize it's relationships and elements of suspense.

I would recommend this book if you're looking for a quick, low-stakes read. It would also be a solid novel for someone looking to get into fantasy but without the desire for a huge cast of characters or a complex magic system.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jessica Thorne, and the publishing groups for providing me with this ARC and the chance to read this fantasy adventure.

This book is a fantasy involving witches, magic, and secret histories and fates. While the concepts and overall theme of the book was interesting, I thought it needed more world building, plot details, and was missing progressive action that helps lead the reader to believe the storylines and relationships. If you are new to fantasy, this might be a good place to start as the length and amount of world building is on the lighter/easier side.

Since this is only my first book by Jessica Thorne, I think her style is fun and will be reading more of her work going forward!

A few areas I felt needed more detail within the novel:
⚫️ Shadowkin - what do these look like? How do they fight/attack? Are they only in the dark woods?
⚫️ The Knox - is this a sentient being? A god? A person? Just a force? How was it broken? (Though that may come in a later book)
⚫️ When traveling, the MMC and FMC seem to travel for all of a day but later it is said to be days to weeks of bonding. We missed a lot of the relationship progression potential without those days of travel and detail.
⚫️ Elodie - I felt like we don’t know much about her personality or magic, or enough to understand the insights Gwen talked about throughout the novel.
⚫️ Pol - didn’t have enough background to make you feel a particular way about him or the opening scenes.

Overall tropes and themes:
✔️ Love at first sight
✔️ Touch her and 💀
✔️ Betrayal
✔️ Lost and found family
❔Low level of world building
🌶️ Spice: low

The book started off interesting, and the characters/ magic was unique. I do think if you are new to fantasy then this may be a good place to start, however for myself I enjoy more world building. I felt some of the plot points felt to abrupt and I had a hard time connecting with the characters and getting into the book.

I really enjoyed this book. I couldn't put it down. Just wanting to know what happened next only to be left still not knowing completely. I can't wait until the second book comes out.

This book was jam packed with adventure and fast paced! would recommend this book to anyone starting out in fantasy. Easy to read and kept me engaged the whole way through. It is about a girl Wren who has special powers that are revealed slowly more and more through out the book of how special they really are. Her mother and her ran away when wren was a baby and are hiding from something or someone. Wren’s village is soon burned down and she is on the run to find her mother Elodie with a handsome boy named Finn. This book was only 4 stars because I think we could have gotten a better character depth for Finn. He fell a little flat in the connection I felt as a reader. There relationship felt a little like “insta love” which is fine if that’s what the author was going for. But none-the-less this book has an amazing magic system and I loved the plot of the story! I wanted to know who wren really was the whole time and I love a fast paced book that has me turning the page for more.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and rate this book. I found this book an easy read but it felt a bit rushed at the end to me and also a little predictable at times. I think this book is a perfect read for people who are just starting to get into romantasy books

I absolutely loved it! Elodie, Wren and Finn are great characters. And they were all heroes, they saved each other multiple times, instead of it just being one hero. I highly recommend it!

I got a review copy of this book from Netgalley. Thank you Second Sky.

Wren has grown up in the woods, kept hidden by her mother, Elodie the hedge witch. Wren thinks she is just the child of a witch, but she's something much more. Elodie is trying to protect her by not telling her about who she is, who her father is, who Elodie is ... or anything, really.

Finn is on a mission gathering information for the Grandmaster (Roland). He comes across Wren being harassed by some local men and defends her. About five minutes later, she saves him from the magic of the darkwoods.

I liked that Finn and Wren save each other in turns.
Elodie's story is only lightly touched on in this book, but I really wanted to know more about her and Roland. (I love Roland, I think he's my favourite character in the book). The story is complex and it gallops along with many, many twists and turns. The ending isn't exactly a cliffhanger, but there's a definite hint of more trouble to come.
I really enjoyed reading A Touch of Shadows and would love to read the next book in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jessica Thorne, and the publishers for allowing me access to the e-Arc.

4.25 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I loved that the fmc can control the darkness. The mmc is a warrior and traitor of a rival kingdom. I do love those kind of tropes. I’m looking forward to seeing what they get up to next.

I recommend it!

This was a different take on magic than I have read before.
Wren was so lonely and lost herself. It bothers me sometimes when people withhold information under the guise of protecting someone. If she had all the information maybe Wren would have made different choices.
This has everything you could want in a fantasy. Magic, goddesses, evil and true love.
Will be interesting to see where this goes next.

3.5 Stars, Rounded Up ⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley, Jessica Thorne, and the publishers for providing me with the e-ARC!

This was a solid fantasy romance that I devoured in a single day! The writing was straightforward, and the plot moved at a great pace. While I wished for a bit more world-building and character depth, this book is a fantastic introduction to the fantasy genre for new readers.

What I enjoyed most were the numerous plot twists that kept me engaged throughout. Jessica Thorne skillfully crafted multiple POVs, revealing new details about each character in a clever way. The last 100 pages were particularly engaging, culminating in an exciting cliffhanger!

I have a feeling Elodie's story is far from over, and I'm eager to see where Wren and Finn's journey takes them in the sequel!